While very few of the folks who go to the races these days
can say that they have seen the complete history of the sport there are those
like me who can say that they have seen the complete history of Pro Stock. With
the Winternationals in 1970 being the line of demarcation, everyone who has
followed the sport since then knows what Pro Stock has meant to drag racing.
Initially started in response to the fans clamoring for a heads-up class
featuring their favorite Detroit
muscle cars, Pro Stock hit the ground running and never looked back. Sure the
fuel cars get a lot of attention at the NHRA national events, but it's hard to
imagine a race without the "door slammers," and some of the sport's top stars and
biggest names have raced in Pro Stock. Case in point, of the NHRA's top ten
drivers Bob Glidden, Bill Jenkins and Warren Johnson all came from the Pro
Stock class. Two of them, Bob and Warren, still rank among the sport's all-time
winningest drivers while the "grumpy" one, Bill Jenkins, made such a lasting
impact on the sport that all you have to do is say "Grumpy" and everyone knows
who you're talking about. By the way, did
you know that all three of those drivers are enshrined in the International Motorsports Hall of Fame?
How cool is that?....Even though 1970 marked the beginning of the class as we
know it, did you know that

Sam Auxier

there were several organizations, including NASCAR, who ran cars similar to Pro
Stock prior to 1970? Called "Ultra Stocks" by NASCAR, the class featured
heads-up racing between cars that were separated by weight breaks. Among the
drivers who competed in that class were Sam
Auxier (who was part of the 1970 Winternationals' field), Wayne Gapp and Al Joniec to name a few.

In 2012 race fans expected more of the same in Pro Stock,
that is, more domination by the Summit
Racing drivers, Greg Anderson
and Jason Line, and why not! After all,
those two had combined for six season championships and they were among the top
drivers in the class for as long as anyone can remember. They had won their six
championships over the course of the last ten years and that's why they were
considered among the favorites at the start of 2012. As strong as the drivers
for owner Ken Black were sure to be
in 2012 they knew they had to bring their "A-game" to every race because they

Line defeated. Anderson

were certain to get a challenge from a very talented group of drivers including
former champs Mike Edwards, Jeg Coughlin and host of others. And
while those drivers and a few others, like Erica
Enders and Vincent Nobile, certainly had an impact on the year,
in the end it was the Mopar of Allen
Johnson who was at the top of the Pro Stock pack in 2012, and for Allen and
his father, Roy, this was the
culmination of almost two decades of competing in the class. Did you know that Allen's first
Pro Stock race came in Phoenix
in 1996? With a group of racers that included Warren Johnson, Mike Edwards, Bob Glidden and Troy Coughlin, Allen and his Dodge failed to make the field. In
fact, out of the thirty-one drivers who were there Allen only ran quicker than
three of them. Undaunted the team headed for Gainesville and the results were basically
the same, another race and another DNQ. That was a pattern that would repeat
itself over and over during the year, and at the end of 1996 the record stood
at eighteen races entered, seventeen DNQ's, one number sixteen spot and a
twenty-sixth place finish in the standings. Ironically that one qualifying

Allen Johnson at the '96 Mile-High Nationals.Photo by NHRA

effort came at a place that would later become Allen's favorite stomping
ground, Bandimere Speedway in Denver. Did you know that of those who
finished ahead of Allen in the points in his rookie season only four, Warren
and Kurt Johnson, Mike Edwards and Larry Morgan are still racing full-time
in Pro Stock? And just for the record WJ won the championship that year and
Mike Edwards tied for "Rookie of the Year" honors with Matt Hines. It's hard to believe that from those humble beginnings
Allen and Roy stayed with it, got better every year and are now the champions
of the Pro Stock world. What a journey it has been for them.

While '96 may have been a real learning process, and a
painful one at times, the Mopar team moved forward and now they are hitting on
all eight of those Hemi's cylinders. With an amazing 105 DNQ's in their past,
their very distant past, Allen and Roy are now among the most consistent cars out
there at every event. Did you know
that they are one of only two teams who have qualified for every race in the
past three years? Greg Anderson's Summit Racing team is the other and Allen has
the second longest qualifying streak in the class right now at sixty-nine
races, with only Greg Anderson's amazing streak of 232 ahead of him..When they
finished qualifying in Pomona Allen and Roy
achieved a milestone for the team, three consecutive years and never a single
DNQ. Believe me, in the Pro Stock class, or any class for that matter, that is

Roy and Allen Johnson

quite an accomplishment. Weather, a broken engine, a missed shift and
rearranged schedules are just some of the things that can play havoc with a
team's qualifying efforts, so to make every show for over three years is a big
thing..To show you how determined they were and how they made the decision to
race and compete in the Pro Stock class no matter how tough it was for them in
the beginning, did you know
that Allen is the only driver in the history of the NHRA to win a Full Throttle series championship and
have more than 100 DNQ's on his record? The only one! Of course most of those
DNQ's came very early in his career when the team was struggling, but still,
that had to be frustrating to anyone as competitive as Allen is, and to stick
with it through the tough times is just another reason why the championship has
to be extra special to the Johnson family, and rightfully so..I mentioned a
week or so ago about how strong Allen has been over the past few years and
there is one number that really stands out over that period of time. At the end
of the 2008 season AJ's record stood at 158 - 185 and it is now 308 - 263. That
means that he has won exactly 150 rounds in the last four years and that's good
in any class of racing and it's the fourth best record in the Pro Stock class
over that period of time. Who do you think has won the most Pro Stock rounds in
the last four years? Well if you said Greg Anderson you would be incorrect.
Jason Line? Wrong again. Mike Edwards has won 167 rounds from 2009 through 2012
and that's the most in the class. Surprisingly both Greg and Jason have won the
exact same number of rounds, 163, in those years and then Allen is next.
Whatever Allen and Roy found it sure has paid off, hasn't it?...In 2012 Allen
won a total of fifty-five rounds and that's a great year in anyone's book. Did you know that Greg won a
staggering seventy-six rounds in his dominating 2004 season and that's still a
record in the class? Jason's best year was a fifty round win season in 2009 the
same year Mike Edwards had his best year with fifty-three round wins. Did you know that Allen's round
win total was the most in any of the Full Throttle classes this year?

Johnson defeated Vincent Nobile

While Allen was crowned the champion there were a lot of
other great moments in the class in 2012 and the competition certainly kept the
Dodge driver on his toes. Jason's dominating performance at the Maple Grove race comes to
mind, and even though he didn't win the event he sure did make his mark on
history. His 6.482 pass and his 214.35 mph blast ended up as the quickest and fastest
runs of the year in the class. In fact, Jason now is the holder of the five
quickest runs in Pro Stock history along with the two fastest and he finished
in the top ten for the ninth consecutive year..Vincent Nobile finished third in
the standings and that makes two very good years for the sophomore driver. The Mountain View Dodge, which runs with
power from the Roy Johnson emporium of really fast Hemi cars, edged Erica
Enders by five points and he looks like he'll be tough to beat for many years
to come...As good as Vincent was the one guy he couldn't beat, at least in the
"Countdown," was Allen. Did you know
that those two met each other in all six of the "Countdown" races and that AJ
won all six of them? And did you know
that in the entire history of the NHRA's top four classes that is the most
times that one driver has beaten another driver at consecutive events? Amazing,
isn't it?

V. Gaines defeated Dave Connolly

For Dodge to capture the championship is a big thing and I'm
sure that everyone at Mopar
certainly appreciated Allen's efforts all year long. In addition to his seven
wins, a record for his career, he also qualified number one ten times and that,
too, is a personal best. Plus he recorded low elapsed time at nine events and
he had the fastest car at ten races and they, too, are all career best numbers.
Along with the one time that Vincent was number one that gave Dodge a total of
eleven top spots in 2012. Did you know
that equals the most number one spots for Dodge in a single year? Back in the
heyday of the "Dodge Boys," Darrell
Alderman and Scott Geoffrion,
they qualified number one at eleven races in 1994, and until now that was the
record for Dodge. Like I said, everyone at Mopar has to be really pleased with
what they saw from their team cars this year, and that includes Vincent, V. Gaines (who won Maple Grove), Jeg Coughlin (who went to the final
round at the Winternationals), Chris
McGaha and others...Based on what we saw this year I expect to see more of Deric Kramer in 2013 and, from what I
hear, Matt Hartford will be making
about a dozen appearances too so that's more good news for the Hemi fans.

Enders defeated Anderson

By any measure Erica Enders had a great year. Let's face it,
when you are second in the class in wins and when you win as many races as Greg
Anderson, it was a good year. Erica's GK
Motorsports team ran well all year and they made a serious run at the
championship, and with everything in place for 2013 they should hit the ground
running in Pomona next February...Erica was one of only five drivers to record
a number one spot this year and the only driver other than Allen to win a race
from the top spot. Did you know
that Greg Anderson was one of those who did not qualify number one in 2012? Since
2001 Greg has had at least one top spot in ten of the twelve years, but none
this year and none in 2010. Even with that, and a new Camaro, Greg still
managed to win four races and finish fifth in the points, a good year by most
standards but probably not by Greg's. Did
you know that Greg had finished no lower than third in the points in
each of the last ten years?....I get to vote in the National DRAGSTER poll
for the "Best of 2012" season and when it came to "Best Performance by a Pro
Stock Car" I had to go with Vincent Nobile's weekend in Norwalk. That's where
he won the K&N Horsepower Challenge
and the event and walked off with a whole pile of cash. He should be just as
good or better next year and you can expect him to make a serious run for the
championship. Of course with the addition of Jeg Coughlin to the teams running
out of the Roy
and Allen Johnson shop, Dodge fans should have even more to cheer about than
they did in 2012 and that's saying a lot.

Nobile and crew celebrate double up in Norwalk.

I am as big a Pro Stock fan as anyone and 2012 provided a
lot of great moments, and about the only thing I could think of that would make
it better would be to have a competitive Ford in the field. Larry Morgan made
some noise this year but never really challenged the top drivers. Still he did
make it past the first round at almost half of the races this year and that's
progress, and it would be great to see him and the other Fords, JR Carr, Mark Wolfe and the Jim
Cunningham entry step up next year. With the new look Camaros, the strong
Mopar contingent and some Fords in the running 2013 could be the best year ever
in Pro Stock. Hey, a guy can dream, can't he?